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We used immunohistochemical procedures to study the cellular expression and distribution of cytokeratins (CKs) in rat 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma cells growing at mammary fat pad sites and at spontaneous lymph node and lung sites. In order to establish CK distribution in normal rat mammary epithelia, immature, resting, and lactating rat mammary glands were probed with a panel of monospecific antibodies that recognize individual CKs. Basal/myepithelial cells were distinguished by expression of CKs 5 and 14 and coexpression of vimentin from luminal cells, which expressed CKs 8, 18, and 19. Antibody to CK 7 recognized luminal epithelium of immature and resting, but not lactating, mammary glands. Myoepithelial cells of lactating mammary gland were weakly recognized by antibodies to CKs 7 and 19. Tumors formed by cell lines and clones derived from parental 13762NF tumor (MTPa, MTC, MTA, and MTF7) were not recognized by any of the anti-CK antibodies. Only vimentin was expressed in these tumors and their metastases. In tumors and metastases generated from cell lines and clones derived from lymph node (MTLY) and lung metastases (MTLn2 and MTLn3) of the 13762NF tumor we observed heterogeneous CK phenotypes. Expression of CKs 5 and 18 was greatly reduced or lacking, while CK 14 was coexpressed with CKs 7, 8, and 19 with or without vimentin. Tumors from the highly metastatic clone MTLn3 had a dominant cellular phenotype, expressing CKs 7, 8, 14, and 19 and vimentin, a pattern that did not match normal mammary epithelia, whether luminal, basal/myoepithelial, or the dual-phenotype stem cell, in which CKs 5, 8, 14, and 18 were coexpressed. MTLn3 lymph node and lung metastases expressed the same cellular phenotype as the s.c. growing MTLn3 tumor. The results appear to contradict the belief that malignant mammary tumors may be distinguished from benign tumors or hyperplastic growths by the lack of basal/myoepithelial markers.

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) MT10:21, a rat IgG2a, reacts with antigens expressed on the metastatic subclone MTLn3 of the 13762NF rat mammary adrenocarcinoma (North, Steck & Nicolson, 1986). The clearance of mAb MT10:21 from circulation was monitored 15 days after s.c. injection of MTLn3 tumour cells into the mammary fat pad of syngeneic rats. At this point, when tumour-burden was small (< 1 cm average diameter), mAb MT10:21 was injected i.v. and serum samples were taken over the 7 days following injection. It was observed that when mAb MT10:21 was injected i.v. into syngeneic rats it induced a humoral immune response. Four days after injection of mAb, IgM serum antibodies which bound to the MTLn3 cell line were detected in both tumour and non-tumour bearing rats. Using a binding assay, tumour-bearer sera showed a steady increase in MTLn3-reactive antibodies over the 7-day assay period. These MTLn3-reactive antibodies were detectable in non-tumour-bearer sera, but reactivity was not as pronounced. Tumour-bearing rats also had serum IgM antibodies which bound to mAb MT10:21 in vitro, but not to a non-specific, isotype-identical control mAb, MC9:13. These serum antibodies were able to partially inhibit (up to 47%) the binding of 125I-labelled mAb MT10:21 to MTLn3 cells. This anti-idiotypic immune response was not observed in the non-tumour bearers. When the tumour was allowed to grow for a period of 30 days in vivo (average tumour diameter 2 cm), these serum antibodies were not readily detectable, suggesting that tumour burden had a significant effect on suppressing the humoral immune responsiveness of these tumour-bearing rats. In a standard delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) assay specific immunity to mAb MT10:21 was induced in vivo.

Spleen cells from rats bearing syngeneic metastatic 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma clone MTLn3 tumors were fused with the rat myeloma Y3 Ag1.2.3 to generate a panel of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). The MAbs could be divided into three groups: those cross-reactive with all 13762NF cells; those reactive with cloned MTLn3 and MTC cells; and those predominantly reactive with the highly metastatic MTLn3 cells. One of these MAbs, MT10:21 (an immunoglobulin G2a), binds predominantly to highly metastatic MTLn3 cells and has a high tumor-cell affinity as determined by its saturation kinetics. MAb MT10:21 has a 6-h half-life on the MTLn3 cell surface and a 24-h half-life in the blood of syngeneic rats. Immunoblotting experiments using lysates from the cloned 13762NF sublines revealed that MAb MT10:21 binds to several proteins having relative molecular weights of 72,000, 73,000, and 120,000. Using an immunohistochemical procedure with frozen tissue sections, MAb MT10:21 shows little reactivity with normal rat mammary tissue, irrespective of the stage of the estrous cycle, and it failed to react with a number of other normal fetal and adult tissues. Furthermore, MAb MT10:21 is heterogeneous in its reactivity to cloned sublines of the 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma, on both tissue cultured cells and tissue sections prepared from tumors growing in situ in the mammary fat pads of syngeneic rats. MAb MT10:21 reacted with certain human breast cancer cell lines and with a subpopulation of metastatic human breast cancer cells in frozen tissue sections from biopsies and autopsies. Metastases from breast cancers reacted more intensely than the primary tumors from which they were derived.

Rat 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma cells (clone MTC) were heated to 42 degrees C either in vivo as a subcutaneous tumour in the rat mammary fat pad or in vitro as attached cells. Labelling in vivo or in vitro detected very similar heat-stress proteins (hsp) at 160, 112, 90, 70 and 56 kDa. Syngeneic rat endothelial and macrophage cells synthesized several cellular proteins in vitro differently than did the tumour cells in vitro, but both types of normal cells were similar to tumour cells in the hsp synthesized. Although the quantitative aspects of induction and repression of hsp may depend on cell type and microenvironment, the major tumour hsp being studied for function in vitro were qualitatively similar to those produced and labelled in vivo in response to a similar heat dose. Hsp were similar in both normal cells and tumour cells from the same host. These observations support the concept that hsp function in fundamental processes in the different microenvironmental and metabolic conditions found in vivo and in vitro. In addition, these observations suggest that prediction of tumour thermal response by measuring hsp levels may be influenced by host cell components.

The expression of a high-Mr sialogalactoprotein (gp580) on rat 13762NF mammary adenocarcinoma cells was identified and correlated with spontaneous metastatic potential to colonize lung [Steck & Nicolson (1983) Exp. Cell Res. 147, 255-267]. Using a highly metastatic tumour-cell clone, MTLn3, we isolated and characterized gp580 from cells growing in vitro and in vivo in the mammary fat-pads of Fischer 344 rats. The glycoprotein was extracted with 4 M-guanidinium chloride/4% Zwittergent 3-12 solution in the presence of proteinase inhibitors. The extracts were then subjected to dissociative CsCl-density-gradient centrifugation, gel filtration on Sepharose CL-2B columns and ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sephacel. The isolated glycoprotein possessed low electrophoretic mobility in SDS/polyacrylamide gels, and after desialylation bound 125I-labelled peanut agglutinin. Electrophoresis of gp580 in polyacrylamide-gradient gels resulted in a diffuse but homogeneous migrating band of Mr approx. 55,000. After removal of carbohydrate, gp580 was demonstrated to have a protein core of Mr approx. 150,000. The gp580 had a high density (1.430 g/ml) on isopycnic centrifugation in 4 M-guanidinium chloride and was resistant to most proteinases and other degradative enzymes, suggesting a mucin-like structure. Amino acid and carbohydrate analyses revealed that gp580 has high contents of serine, threonine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glucosamine and galactosamine; several acidic and neutral oligosaccharides were obtained from alkaline-borohydride digests. Cellular localization studies suggested that gp580 is associated mainly with the cell-surface and extracellular-matrix fractions of MTLn3 cells.

A rat hybridoma producing IgM monoclonal antibody (MAb) GP21:56 was generated with specificity for a high-molecular-weight, mucin-like glycoprotein (gp580) present on highly metastatic 13762NF rat mammary adenocarcinoma cells. The hybridoma was made by fusing rat Y3 Ag1.2.3 myeloma cells with spleen cells from a rat immunized i.d. with purified gp580. The gp580 appeared to be of low immunogenicity in syngeneic F344 rats because a total of 27 fusions were required to produce one hybridoma with specificity for this glycoprotein. Immunoblotting of purified gp580 after electrophoresis in 1% agarose and antibody-binding assays using purified gp580 linked to microtiter plates confirmed that MAb GP21:56 bound specifically to gp580. Other MAbs made against breast mucins were negative for gp580 reactivity. Enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assays (ELISA) and radiolabelled antibody binding assays demonstrated that MAb GP21:56 bound to 13762NF adenocarcinoma cell lines and clones in relation to their spontaneous metastatic potentials; significantly more MAb GP21:56 bound to highly metastatic MTLn3 cells than to low metastatic MTC cells, and MAb GP21:56 showed little reactivity towards the majority of other cell lines tested, whether of rodent or of human origin. Kinetic binding studies indicated that MAb GP21:56 does not have a high affinity for gp580 but, once bound, it shows high avidity for this sialogalactoprotein. Localization studies using frozen tissue sections of 13762NF tumors indicated that MAb GP21:56 reacts with tumor cells grown in vivo in an analogous manner to in vitro cultured cells. Using immunoperoxidase techniques, less than 50% of the highly metastatic MTLn3 tumor cells were stained, whereas approximately 20% of the intermediate metastatic MTF7 and MTLn2 cells and less than 10% of low metastatic MTC and MTPa cells were stained with MAb GP21:56. The cell-to-cell reactivity was heterogeneous and mainly associated with the tumor-cell surface and extracellular matrix.

The importance of host immune status on the spontaneous metastasis of cloned cell lines of the 13762NF rat mammary adenocarcinoma was examined. Cell lines MTLn3 (high metastatic potential), MTF7 and MTLn2 (intermediate metastatic potential) and MTC (low metastatic potential) were subjected to a series of in vivo assays designed to assess how manipulation of the immune system in the syngeneic F344 host would affect the ability of these cells to metastasise. Treatment of tumour bearing rats with the immunosuppressive agents cyclosporin A or cyclophosphamide had little influence on metastasis in this system. Growth of tumours in congenitally athymic nude rats resulted in reduction of observed metastases. In addition, humoral immune response was not detectable during a 23-day period of tumour growth in F344 rats. Excision of the tumour growing in situ reduced the number of metastases when the tumours were resected early (less than 10 days), but at later times tumour resection did not influence the incidence of metastasis. The importance of initial lymphatic rather than haematogenous routes of dissemination was confirmed in experiments where the draining inguinal and axillary lymph nodes were removed at different times either before, or after, subcutaneous mammary fat pad injection of metastatic tumour cells.

The susceptibility of cloned cell lines of the 13762NF rat mammary adenocarcinoma to macrophage-mediated cytolysis was investigated using both intra- and extratumoral macrophages. The percentage of Fc receptor-positive cells in tumors growing s.c. in syngeneic F344 rats ranged from 8 to 20%, but we could not demonstrate a significant correlation between the number of Fc receptor-positive cells within tumors and their spontaneous metastatic potentials. In macrophage-mediated cytolysis assays, cloned 13762NF cell lines of differing metastatic potential, established from tissue culture lines, fresh tumor explants, or short-term cultures (one passage in vitro), were used as targets. Effector cells were thioglycolate-elicited peritoneal macrophages (activated in vitro with bacterial lipopolysaccharide) or intratumoral macrophages (activated in vitro with lipopolysaccharide). When the effector cells were peritoneal macrophages, established cloned 13762NF cell lines showed little correlation in their susceptibility to macrophage-mediated cytolysis and metastatic potential, while this was not observed when fresh tumor explants were used. Highly metastatic MTLn3 cells were the least sensitive, less metastatic MTF7 and MTLn2 cells were more susceptible, and the low metastatic parental MTPa cells were the most sensitive in 72-h cytolysis assays. When the effector cells were intratumoral macrophages, all 13762NF cell lines showed less sensitivity in cytolysis assays than similar assays using thioglycolate-elicited peritoneal macrophages. With the exception of line MTLn2, short-term cultures (one passage in vitro) did not differ substantially in susceptibility to intratumoral macrophages compared to fresh explants. In this system, the sensitivity of 13762NF cells to macrophage-mediated cytolysis is a function of effector as well as target cell source.